Spring?

Oh, the barnyard is busy, in a regular tizzy
And the obvious reason is because of the season.
Ma Nature's lyrical,
With her yearly miracle.
Spring, Spring, Spring!

In case you aren't sure, this is from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which is a musical I both love and hate.
I hate it because it's so sexist.  I mean really?  The Rape of the Sabines and whatnot.  And a good bit of Stockholm Syndrome thrown in, to boot.
(I will probably get booted from my husband's family for saying that.  They love this show.)

However, I love it because it was the first show I ever worked on at Tuacahn.  It was the first time I met my husband, as well, although we didn't date or anything until, I think, a year or two later?  Not sure, really.  I love it because I made a lot of good friends that year.  I love it because it is associated with an awful lot of fun and good times.  Not to mention a WHOLE lot of very pretty boys with buff bods.  I ain't gonna lie, there was some serious eye candy that year.  That year also being the year we did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat meant that said eye candy went without shirts a lot, since they all needed to be tan.  No objections here.

BUT, that isn't really the point of this post, as much fun as it is.  No, the point is that I think spring has actually arrived here!  I mean, this is not to say that we won't get another dose of winter weather, we probably will.  We usually do.  And of course, that makes everyone cranky, but in the meantime...sunshine, warmth!  Green thing poking up out of the earth!  The Small One wanting to be outside everyday!

There are one or two drawbacks to The Small One wanting to be outside all day.  One, she doesn't really have anyone to play with all day, except me or her Grandma.  I don't like to be outside   all day.  I do have things to do.  The other?  She gets FILTHY.   Dirt?  Yes, please.   Rocks and gravel?  You betcha.  Twigs and branches?  She'll take them all.  And then, of course, she runs in and out of the house.  In the front door, out the back door, in the back door, out the kitchen door. 

It being early spring, the ground is still quite damp.  It being The Small One, she plays in the garden boxes or out in the chicken pen.  As I am sure you can imagine, the garden, the chicken pen and the ins and outs of The Small One mean dirt, mud, muck  In my house.  I have tried to convince her that wellies belong out of doors only, but, you know, she is 4.  She gets distracted.  Forgets to remove said wellies.  Yesterday, this resulted in a PATH of loamy spring soil from the back of the house to the front.  I gave up on trying to keep her from dragging in dirt and let it go, then swept it all up when it got dark and she had to come in.

Once she comes in for the evening, the hard part is convincing her that she really needs to take a shower before she takes her bath.  She doesn't seem to understand that wallowing about in her own watery filth is disgusting. UNCLEAN.  So, I make her take a shower, rinse all the gunk off, then she can have her hot bath.  (she's like me, she loves HOT baths).

She and I are very excited for the Spring.  Our starts are coming up nicely, well most of them, anyway.  I have been planning the new landscaping in the front yard, which will level our yard a bit more and give us a nice raised garden bed.  The blackberries are leafing out and looking as though they will be prolific again this year.  Here's hoping that the apricots go this year, since last year's  harvest was dismal.  Nobody had any excess apricots, so we (read TMOTH) didn't get to make jam and our supply is running low.  Actually, last year was kind of a bad year all around for fruit in these parts, so our supply of all things canned is a bit low.  We are going to be epic this year, I tell you what.  Canning our little hearts out, if the harvest permits.

Also, TMOTH and The Small One came home with two turkey chicks yesterday.  So cute.  Ready to fatten them up for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully, these two won't be as mean as last year's turkeys.  They were the very devil.

And now, since the sun has reached the spot where it shines through my window onto my chaise, I am going to go be a cat and lay on said chaise and bake my poor head for a bit.